COUGARS Reserves fell to a heavy home defeat at the hands of St Helens for the second time this season.

Their 74-6 reverse at the hands of their Super League visitors came just six weeks after the 84-14 thrashing at the beginning of April.

Calvin Barker scored the Cougars only try early in the second half as he dived over from close range after spotting a gap on the line but his effort proved nothing more than a mere consolation.

In similar fashion to April’s meeting, Saints half-back Danny Richardson ran the show for the visitors but only after an opening ten minutes which saw the hosts unlucky to not break the deadlock after Matthew Lees had been sin-binned.

Aaron Smith opened the scoring as he went over from dummy half with Jack Owens waltzing through the defence before offloading to Ricky Bailey who scored his first of the evening.

Another break allowed Jonah Cunningham, son of Saints legend Keiron, to score with Jake Spedding then diving over from close range.

The visitors then turned the screw with another two quickfire tries as Liam Cooper squeezed over before Calvin Wellington wrapped up a full length break for Ian Talbot’s side.

Adam Walker turned through a tackle to touch down and the half was brought to a close by Bailey, who scored as Saints broke following a number of missed tackles.

The full-time outfit continued to punish the Cougars and Spedding raced round a would-be tackler for his second.

Barker’s try then followed but this sprung the Saints back into life following a brief null in an otherwise all-round perfect performance.

Wales international Ben Morris touched down and, after some brave line defence, Cunningham managed to break the resilience for his second in front of his watching father.

Wellington crossed to seal his brace and the scoring was concluded six minutes from time as Bailey sealed his hat-trick.

Scott Lindsey’s side will look to get back to winning ways, following a friendly against Stanningley, when South Wales visit Cougar Park in the next league fixture.

COUGARS: Darville, Davey, Casey, Lawton, Barker, Smithson, Brook, Hutchinson, Walters, Welsh, Pickering, Reed, Kelly. Subs: Brown, Adams, Scully, Price.